The Wall-Eyed Pike 271 



there and dropped, by a fall-fish, in a long time producing 

 the heap. In the interstices the eggs were deposited, and 

 later I frequently saw the fishes lying on the slopes of the 

 mountains of their making. 



These lakes, bays and miniature fiords were charming 

 places to observe the habits of fishes. In this same watery 

 Eden I found beneath the lilypads the nests of the sunfish ; 

 a little clearing not as large as my hand, covered with gravel, 

 where the pugnacious male stood guard. Indeed, in one 

 instance I found that I could not drive the fish away from 

 the nest by reaching down ; it stood its ground until I almost 

 touched it. Not far from here I found later the nest of the 

 black-bass, along the same lines, though the clearing was 

 larger. 



Every day we took a different route, meeting our friends 

 at some beautiful spot, some island not discovered by the 

 world at large, where we dined sumptuously, under the cook- 

 ing of the guides, and exchanged experiences of the day, 

 compared the colossi, weight and length, and disputed them 

 inch by inch. One morning we rowed down the stream to 

 where a little river hardly wide enough to admit a boat 

 separates it from Murray Island, about four miles from 

 Clayton, forming a little island abounding in forests and 

 inland ponds. In a maze of trees, vine-clad, I came upon a 

 deserted house, about which we built up a deep unfathom- 

 able mystery, and it would be very hard to convince me that 

 it was not haunted by some cheerless yet altogether delight- 

 ful ghost. One night when passing, I heard the dismal 

 hooting of an owl from its inner gloom, and strange lights 

 were drifting about, which might have been flambeaux in 

 the hands of ghostly voyagcurs of long ago. It is true that 

 the lowland here was famous for its ignes fatui; but the 

 ghostly interpretation appealed to me the most. 



Near the little separating river, from the mouth of which 

 we looked off into a broad bay to other and distant lands, 

 I found some remarkable potholes, but they were eight or 



